Lørenskog, Norway, 03.12.2020

UN Global Compact
New York
USA

Statement of the company’s chief executive

I am pleased to confirm that Bertel O. Steen AS reaffirms its support of the principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption.
In this annual Communication on Progress, we describe our actions to continually improve the integration of the Global Compact and its principles into our business strategy, culture and daily operations. We commit us to share this information with our stakeholders using our primary channels of communication.

Sincerely yours

Bjørn Maarud
Chief Executive Officer

In general the level of respecting human rights are quite high in Norway. This is regulated in Norwegian law, with rigid rules and corresponding reactions from the governing bodies for non-respecting of the law.

In our company we have 10 governing policies which covers all our activities, with strict mandatory principles in this area for our company, for our employees, for suppliers and other stakeholders.

The main principles linked to Human Rights are stated in policy no. 1 - "Policy of Compliance and Social accountability" and in Policy no. 6 "HR".

Refer also to the company's web site: https://www.boskonsern.no/english/

We have an established Compliance function to which all breaks of regulations, including human rights principles, shall be reported.

There is established a whistleblower channel which can be used to report discrepancies. Both internal and external parties can use this channel, and anonymous reports are also possible.

Our suppliers are obliged to and confirm by signing a specific Declaration of conformity that they adhere to and execute according to our principles.

The Compliance function registers all reported cases. Periodic reports are conveyed to the board of the company.

Norwegian labour laws to protect employees are quite strict, and to a large extent in favor of the employee. If not respected by employers there are severe reactions from the governing bodies.

As a responsible employer in the Norwegian market we full comply with all related laws and regulations.

We have a central HR department which assist all departments in executing their responsibilities, advising them and implements corrective actions where necessary.
Our policies for Compliance and HR, in addition to the Norwegian employment laws and regulations, are the guidelines which have to be respected.

Twice a year all employees - approx. 2.500 - are obliged to perform surveys on how they assess the labour environment within our company and their satisfaction level in several different areas. Comments and suggestions are welcome.
The results from the surveys are closely examined, both centrally and in every department, and corrective measures are discussed and implemented.

Our company is the sole importer to Norway for 6 different brands of vehicles: Mercedes-Benz, Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel and Kia. These vehicles - passenger cars, vans, trucks and buses - are sold, serviced and repaired through a network of approx. 40 fully owned dealerships, in addition to a number of independent dealers.

The different manufacturers have strict measures for anti-pollution in their vehicles and in the service and repair routines. A large proportion of the vehicles sold are non-polluting electric vehicles.

All our dealers are officially certified as environmental friendly, and by this we are obliged to - and extremely focused on - protection of the environment.
In the workshops there are potentiel sources for harmful emissions, but as a result of strict preventive measures we have not registered any negative incidents.

Waste managemnet is another focus area in the whole organisation. The separation rate for the total organisation is at 75%.

The heating in our premises is to a large extent based on electric power, for which the source is either water or wind.
In many of our installatiions throghout the country the use of hot water is used for heating. The water comes from remote installations where they burn waste to heat the water.

We impose immediate corrective actions if there is detected issues which could cause damage to the environment.

As an environmental certified company we are obliged to issue a yearly report on our achievements linked to environment.

No major negative issues have been detected in 2019.

First - in Norway the level of corruption is extremely low.

We have a written policy - "Policy for Compliance and Social acountability" - where it is stated that we have zero tolerance for corruption.

This is also stated in our Code of conduct, valid for all employees.

Every year all employees must perform a training lesson in our Code of conduct, where different scenarios linked to corruption are part of the training.

Our suppliers and other stakeholders must sign a document where they state that they adhere to and respect our demands in this area.

Suspected breaks of these strict regulations are reported to and followed up by our Compliance Officer.

Possible suspected cases of corruption shall be reported to the Compliance Officer. There is established different channels for such reports: internal, external, anonymous.

In 2019 our German supplier Daimler/Mercedes-Benz conducted an external audit in our company, Anti-corruption was also part of this audit. No incidents were reported.

Every year there is given a compliance-report to the board of our company. There has not been any incidents linked to corruption/anti-corruption.